Genes

Everyday our cells take in nutrients from food and convert them into the building blocks that make life possible. However, it has been challenging to pinpoint exactly how a single nutrient or vitamin changes gene expression and physiology. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a novel interspecies model system that allows these questions to be answered. In a study appearing in the journal Cell, UMMS researchers use this new approach to show how bacterially supplied vitamin B12 changes gene expression, development and fertility in the model organism C. elegans.

Practitioners have been attesting to it for years, and now medical science is waking up to the idea that meditation really does have health benefits. A new study, published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, has discovered specific molecular changes in the body after a period of mindful meditation.

With evidence growing that meditation can have beneficial health effects, scientists have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body. A new study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France reports the first evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of mindfulness meditation.

Though worlds apart, four unrelated families have been united in a medical mystery over the source of a rare inherited disorder that results in their children being born with abnormal brain growth and severe functional impairments.

Studying the expression of genes that are dependent on vitamin D makes it possible to identify individuals who will benefit from vitamin D supplementation, shows a University of Eastern Finland study published recently in PLoS One.

The Vitamin D Receptor gene (VDR) is expressed in many tissues and modulates the expression of several other genes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) with the presence of VDR 2228570 C > T and VDR 1544410 A > G polymorphisms in Brazilian adults.

Vitamin C affects whether genes are switched on or off inside mouse stem cells, and may thereby play a previously unknown and fundamental role in helping to guide normal development in mice, humans and other animals, a scientific team led by UC San Francisco researchers has discovered.

A study of mouse stem cells reveals that vitamin C may play a role in their health by influencing the switching on and off of genes. The researchers suggest this could have an important effect on the development of mice, humans and other animals, and finding out more about the underlying mechanisms could improve our understanding of in vitro fertilization, cancer and adult stem cells.

The freshly sequenced genome of the most commonly cultivated cacao plant in the world is revealed in the open access journal Genome Biology. Researchers have utilised high quality DNA sequences to demonstrate the usefulness and quality of the sequence to identify genetic markers that can lead to higher yielding cocoa plants that still produce better tasting cocoa.